Video Games != Teh Devil

I'm sick and tired of the stigma that older adults and the mainstream media have given to video games.

1) Video games are antisocial.
This is a load of hooey. I've played [at least] a couple hundred hours of Halo and Halo 2. Probably 75% of it has been with other people. Socially-speaking, it's no different than playing cards, shooting hoops, or any other "normal" thing that people do together; it's a way to compete with your friends and shoot the breeze at the same time. It's certainly a step or two above watching a movie, where you sit next to each other in silence* for two hours.

2) Video games + normal kid == Columbine.
This is the result of news companies wanting headlines and parents wanting somebody else to blame. Yes, future murderers are probably more likely than average to enjoy violent video games. That's correlation, not causation. I've also heard that most overweight kids wear large sizes of clothing. Hurry up and ban the XL size, it's making American kids into fatties!! People like Jack Thompson, the leader of a whole new breed of lawyer scum, should be disbarred and forced to live in a place like Somalia (or today's urban Iraq) for a while to learn what real violence is, and how video games are just that - games.
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*If you're not watching in silence, you're pissing me off. Shut up, please. Thanks. :)